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    <title>ShellCheck: SC1143 – This backslash is part of a comment and does not continue the line.</title>
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    <h1>SC1143 – ShellCheck Wiki</h1>
    <a href="https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/wiki/SC1143">See this page on GitHub</a>
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    <h2
id="this-backslash-is-part-of-a-comment-and-does-not-continue-the-line">This
backslash is part of a comment and does not continue the line.</h2>
<h3 id="problematic-code">Problematic code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="SC1143.html#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">sed</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="SC1143.html#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/HOST/</span><span class="va">$HOSTNAME</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span>   <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="SC1143.html#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a># <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/USER/</span><span class="va">$USER</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span>       <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb1-4"><a href="SC1143.html#cb1-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/ARCH/</span><span class="va">$(</span><span class="fu">uname</span> <span class="at">-m</span><span class="va">)</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb1-5"><a href="SC1143.html#cb1-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$buildfile</span><span class="st">&quot;</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="correct-code">Correct code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb2"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb2-1"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">sed</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb2-2"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/HOST/</span><span class="va">$HOSTNAME</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span>   <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb2-3"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/ARCH/</span><span class="va">$(</span><span class="fu">uname</span> <span class="at">-m</span><span class="va">)</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb2-4"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$buildfile</span><span class="st">&quot;</span></span>
<span id="cb2-5"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-6"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="co"># This comment is moved out:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-7"><a href="SC1143.html#cb2-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="co"># -e &quot;s/USER/$USER/g&quot;       \</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>or using backticked, inlined comments:</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb3"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb3-1"><a href="SC1143.html#cb3-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">sed</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb3-2"><a href="SC1143.html#cb3-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/HOST/</span><span class="va">$HOSTNAME</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span>   <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb3-3"><a href="SC1143.html#cb3-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="kw">`</span><span class="co"># -e &quot;s/USER/$USER/g&quot;</span><span class="kw">`</span>     <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb3-4"><a href="SC1143.html#cb3-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="at">-e</span> <span class="st">&quot;s/ARCH/</span><span class="va">$(</span><span class="fu">uname</span> <span class="at">-m</span><span class="va">)</span><span class="st">/g&quot;</span> <span class="dt">\</span></span>
<span id="cb3-5"><a href="SC1143.html#cb3-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$buildfile</span><span class="st">&quot;</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>(ShellCheck recognizes this idiom and does not suggest quotes or
<code>$()</code>, neither of which would have worked)</p>
<h3 id="rationale">Rationale:</h3>
<p>ShellCheck found a line continuation followed by a commented line
that appears to try to do the same.</p>
<p>Backslash line continuations are not respected in comments, and the
line instead simply terminates. This is a problem when commenting out
one line in a multi-line command like the example.</p>
<p>Instead, either move the line away from its statement, or use an
<code>`# inline comment`</code> in an unquoted backtick command
substitution.</p>
<h3 id="exceptions">Exceptions:</h3>
<p>None.</p>
<h3 id="related-resources">Related resources:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX,
etc!</li>
</ul>
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    <p style='font-size: 80%'><a href="../index.html">ShellCheck</a> is a static analysis tool for shell scripts. This page is part of its documentation.</p>
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